“Not entirely sure that was the blow job.”
The air conditioner wascrankingcold air, so I turned toward him and snuggled my face into his armpit with my arm thrown over his stomach,because I could, and I was gonna revel in it.
“So… I take it you liked my singing, then?” Rafe said sleepily a few minutes later.
I squeezed him tighter. “I’m a fan, Rafe Goodman. A true fan.”
* * *
I woke up to find orangey-gold tendrils of light beaming through the sheer curtains at the window directly into my sleepy eye holes, and it was a sign of how well fucked I was that I didn’t even care.
Rafe sprawled on his stomach in bed with his arm over my chest and his face turned toward me, in a near-perfect mirror of my own position, on my back with my face turned toward him. He had a little pucker between his eyebrows, like he was concentrating really hard on sleeping, and I wanted to reach out and smooth it away, but I also didn’t want him to wake up because I had no idea what would happen when he did.
We’d woken briefly in the night to use the bathroom, which had led to me, with the kind of single-minded, stubborn need I only ever felt at three o’clock in the morning, to realize Ineededmy toothbrush. Cue the two of us—yes,us, because we were partners in crime again, for now anyway—stumbling next door, giggling and half-naked, to open the connecting door and retrieve our luggage, shushing each other the whole time like a couple of teens with a pilfered bottle of Boone’s Farm.
Ihadfelt drunk. I still did. And like I’d told Rafe earlier, it had nothing to do with tequila.
Later, we’d brushed our teeth side by side, and I’d grinned uncontrollably. Giddily.Rafewas beside me, brushing his teeth.
Last-week-me never would have believed I’d be living that kind of ordinary miracle, and Rafe’s eyes said he was experiencing the same wondrous phenomenon.
So we’d shucked off our jeans again and commemorated the moment in the best possible way—by kissing with deep, slow, minty reverence and frotting with our eyes wide open so we didn’t miss a second.
After it was over, Rafe had shifted off me just far enough that I could breathe comfortably, and we’d agreed we were gonna get up “in a minute” to clean off and shut the curtains. Judging by the dried mess on my stomach and the laser beams shooting into my skull, neither of us had stayed awake that long, but I couldn’t be mad about it.
How often did I get a chance to watch the sunlight turn Rafe’s skin to molten gold? How often did I get to just breathe and feel in my heart that there was no place else on earth I’d rather be?
I’d traveled all over and gotten to experience things lots of people could only dream about, but this moment right here was one I knew I’d want to remember forever and replay over and over.
I lifted Rafe’s arm gently, placing a kiss to his knuckles, and scooted off the bed to find my notebook, to capture the feeling the best way I could.
By the time Rafe woke up an hour later, I was sitting on the bed cross-legged in my underwear with most of a new song down.
“Hey.” Rafe’s voice was sandy-rough, and he reached out a hand to rub my knee. “How long have you been awake?”
He rolled onto his back with a groan, exposing all sorts of new parts of him to the sunshine, which was so verydistracting, it took me a full minute to formulate an answer.
“Hours and hours.” I shut my notebook with my pen inside and tossed it to the foot of the bed so I could stretch out beside him. “While you were getting your beauty rest, I was working. I thought about grabbing Vega, but I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Vega?” He grinned stupidly. “Nos?”
“Nope.” I trailed my fingers over the curve and dip of his bicep. “You know, it’s been a long time since I wrote a song I thought had potential, and now I’ve written a couple things in just the last few days, which is… unbelievable.”
“Maybe the murder van inspired you.” He pulled me in closer so his arm was around me and my head rested flat on his chest. “Too bad it was stolen.”
“I still can’t believe Chet did that,” I muttered. “The one time I try to have faith in someone.”
He teased the hair at the back of my neck, making me shiver. “You just had to pick the guy with dubious personal hygiene and a weird thing for triple-tread tires to put your faith in, huh?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster. “But I guess I should get up so I can call the insurance company and the deputy sheriff. Get us some new wheels.”
I made absolutely zero effort to move, though, which was fine since Rafe tightened his arm around me to keep me in place.
“Not so fast,” he said. “We still have stuff to talk about now that we have a moment with no distractions.”
I blew out a breath. He was right. He wastotallycorrect. And yet I found myself weirdly reluctant. Deep, difficult conversations involving my sister had seemed so important when I was feeling shitty about everything, and so much less appealing when I was cuddled against Rafe’s chest.
“I wouldn’t saynodistractions.” I walked my fingers up the hard plane of his stomach to pinch one brown nipple.
